Tribal trinkets

I walked passed the Mt Meru Market, now named the Masai market as part of the Great Masaii Brand Naming convention, and paused there a while to check out the gewgaws in a large tin shed with 110 stalls lined with identical tourist paraphernalia. Unlike Australian tourist knick-knacks which are made in China, these momentous are locally made. (Its cheaper!)
Some of the paintings are quite distinctive, copies of those in the cultural museum. Printing copies from a photograph is far too expensive in Tanzania, so the copies have to be made by hand, using oil paints. Fools a lot of Americans!
I noticed some good quality cloth bags which could have come from anywhere and many rhinos and elephants carved from ebony. Ebony is light on the outside and black on the inside which allows the skilled artisan to make some amazing two tone pieces. Big wooden spoons or salad fork / spoons are nearly as common as giraffes and rhinos and of course brightly coloured Tanzanian shirts which Tanzanians eschew in favour of Man United T shirts.
Many beads. Many many beads. It was Beadlam in there.Read more